When most people think about independent film, they think about those little artsy movies that tend to not make much money at the box office, but clean up at Oscar time. They can be depressing, downbeat, and frankly, tough sledding to sit through compared to the eye-candy exploits of "Iron Man" and "Indiana Jones."

The conventional wisdom says these indies first popped at the Sundance Film Festival in the late 1980s, with the release of "Sex, Lies and Videotape." But their history goes back much further.

The tough-guy-actor-turned-director John Cassavetes was the genre's master and martyr.

Cassavetes, who's probably best remembered as the on-screen husband of Mia Farrow in "Rosemary's Baby" and the off-screen husband of actress Gena Rowlands, cast pals like Ben Gazzara, Peter Falk, and Rowlands in a series of tiny, realistic films that were an antidote to Hollywood gloss and artifice.

Now, two of his best from the 1970s have been re-mastered for DVD. "A Woman Under the Influence", from 1974, stars Rowlands as a housewife who's slowly becoming unhinged right before the eyes of her husband (Falk) and her young children. Overwhelmed by everyday situations, Rowlands gives an Oscar-nominated performance that's both harrowing and beyond excruciating. It's what acting is all about.

"The Killing of A Chinese Bookie", from 1976, stars Gazzara as a strutting polyester peacock who owns a nightclub and is in debt way over his head with the wrong people. In order to get out of hock, he's told that he can wipe the slate clean if he agrees to murder a local Chinatown mob boss. Gazzara is all good times on the outside, but deep down he's a doomed man who knows he has no other choice.

Both films are fantastic. I can't recommend them highly enough. And the new discs are loaded with extras, including interviews with Falk and Rowlands, who rightly regard their friend's envelope-pushing movies as miniature miracles.

Now for a look at what else is new on DVD: in "Wall-E," the animated hit about an alien trash compactor comes to disc; in "Tropic Thunder," Ben Stiller satirizes self-important Hollywood stars; and in "Encounters at the End of the World," Werner Herzog directs a documentary about life in Antarctica.